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level: Cognitive

Questions and Answers List

level questions: Cognitive

QuestionAnswer
What is the main focus of the cognitive area?- Focuses on the way our brains processes information - Covers many areas like memory, perception, language, thinking + attention
What are the key assumptions of the cognitive area?- Information processing affects our behaviour - Our brains operate like a computer – they rely on input, they process information and this leads to an output (behaviour) - We can make assumptions about what is happening in our brain based on external observations of behaviour
Information processing- The way that information is taken in by the senses, analysed and then responded too
Memory- The capacity to encode, Store and retrieve information - Without memory , learning could not take place
Forgetting- An experience of not being able to recall information such as an event, fact or a person's name
Storage- The maintenance of information without actively using it for a period of time after initial encoding
Retrieval- The process of locating and extracting stored information so that it can be recalled
Strengths of the cognitive area- Can help us understand how we think + process information - Can have useful practical application in schools, crime etc. - Favours scientific method, so research is usually well controlled, high internal validity - High in internal validity, often uses quantitative data, high in credibility
Weakness of the cognitive area- Scientific approach, some studies lack ecological validity, take place in lab conditions - Lab experiments, demand characteristics - Whilst there have been technological advances, still limits to understanding internal mental processes - Models of information processing aim to generalise to everyone, but are often overly reductionist